Thursday, June 25, 2009

Dangit Dangit Dangit!!!!!

This is what we came home from church to. Dang golfers! This is only our second broken window in almost two and a half years so we have been kinda lucky but this one was pretty bad. This window is in our bathroom & it's WAY off the fairway! Whoever it was has a nice swing though because it shot straight through and I found glass clear on the other side of the room. So, if you can't golf do us a favor and skip right on by the 16th hole please!

Happy Father's Day To Our Dad!

It's a little late but I wanted to tell Mike how much we LOVE him! This was right after he got home from a week long training and the kids couldn't get enough of him. I don't realize how much he does and how nice it is to have long conversations with him until he's gone.
Things we LOVE about our dad.....
Carter says "He's a great builder & fixes things, and helps me with anything I want."
Gage says "He fixes my bike, and he builds me a fence.
Katlyn says "He makes me better at being brave. He's the best dad ever!"
Gavin I'm sure would say he loves it when his dad throws him in the air and gives him wiskery kisses.
I love that he's a family man. Everything he does is for us. He's a ridiculously hard worker. He makes me laugh every day with his comments. His favorite lately is "Well, shit the bed Fred." I know it's bad, but it makes me laugh every time. He always looks for the bright side of things and I need that sometimes. I couldn't live without him! Happy Father's Day Mike!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

1 year away from the double digits!!!

Katlyn turned 9 on June 19th. I can't believe that she is this old already! She has grown into a beautiful, sweet young lady. Mike was gone ALL week long at another training so we kinda waited to celebrate until he got home Saturday night. I am such a toot, but I don't do the party thing so Katlyn got to go on a date with her dad! (She would much rather do that than have a party anyway!) After they got home bringing with them a new set of rollerblades she opened her mario bros. ds game.
Mike took this picture while they were eating dinner. Politely licking her fingers while eating ribs.
She asked for chocolate covered strawberries instead of a cake so, that's what we had. They were delicious and easy.
Here's her first try at rollerblading. She actually did really good. Mike and I both used to rollerblade like crazy when we were younger so we scrunched our feet in and took them for a roll too. It was so fun, but I'm definately not a natural anymore. Mike on the other hand still is. Whatever!
And here she is with her favorite person. We love you Katlyn and are so proud of you. Can't believe that you are this big, but we had better get used to it I guess!

Cousin Camp 2009....

So, we got to Pima Tuesday night. Just the kids and I & Mike went home to work. Wednesday morning the kids left for Cousin Camp. The boys were ready to leave as soon as they woke up, but Katlyn was a little nervous. She is her mother's daughter. She gets soooo homesick & it stinks. If you don't get homesick you are lucky because it is aweful! She was a trooper though and stayed tough! The skit the kids did was a hit. They were talking about how the pioneer children walked and walked even when it rained and they squirted the dad's with squirt guns. If you look close you will see that Mike stole Gage's gun and is fighting back. Typical!
Here's the crew of our little campers. They were so worn out and extremely dirty, but they had a blast.
They always do a flag raising when the parents come and Carter got to be the one to fold and carry the flag. He did such a good job!
The parents even got in on the action when we showcased our bunny hop skills.

Here's the whole crew in their Cousin Camp 2009 t-shirts! Thanks so much Grandma & Grandpa. We know a lot of hard work goes into what you do!
(While the kids were at Cousin Camp Gavin and I spent a few days with Aunt Misty and her kiddos in Thatcher.)

Another weekend at the pool. This time somewhat with our DAD!

Mike had fire training in the valley so we all headed down for a few days. The water was nice and warm this time. Gavin LOVED it! Especially this little spot on the waterfall. Nice farmer tan babe! The older kids even got to stay a night in Dad's hotel with him. They rented a $15 movie and ate breakfast at the hotel "diner." Carter informed us it was the best vacation ever! Who knew they were so easy to please?!
Grandpa busted out the wood that he purchased at Walmart. (Funny that Grandpa Papa would ever do that but he is a city man now so we promised to bring him some the next time we come.) It was s'mores for everyone.

Up in 3D was a little disappointing, but the movie was still cute, and the kids loved their glasses.
We even got in a little exercise with Grandma on the Wii. Thanks for letting us come again Grandma & Grandpa. It was TONS of fun.
I LOVE this picture of Gavin. It totally shows his personality. Chill! So 5 days in the valley of swimming, shopping and movies and we move on down to Pima!

Kindergarten Graduate!

Carter had his Kindergarten Graduation & I'm posting pictures really late. This is Carter & his SUPER teacher aid Mrs. Merrill.
And this is his FABULOUS teacher Mrs. Breedlove. Both women were equally amazing! Carter did wonderful and learned so much from them. We could not have asked for better! Thanks to both of you!
I love this picture of him getting his "Diploma." It was so fun! He's getting so big!
On the last day of "real school" they had a field day and they made these cute little shirts to wear. They had everyone in their class put their handprint on them. He loves it!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Seriously, has it really been 9 years?

Seriously, it has. I cannot believe that Mike and I have been married for 9 years! That seems like it should feel long, but I feel like it was just yesterday or maybe the day before that we met. My friend Brittany told me that Mike thought I was cute, but he was so shy he wouldn't even look at me. So, one day in the gym I just said hi to him and watched his face turn beet red. It was priceless! Then he shows up at my volleyball tournament in Payson and when I go to serve the ball he says, "Hey number 2, you have a nice butt." Completely calm and like it was totally normal for him to say that! (He's going to kill me for putting that on here, so nobody tell him!) The rest is history. Some of it not so good and a little crazy, but most of it unbelievable. He was planning on being in Pima his senior year and I never planned on being in Snowflake my senior year, but there we were and here we are!
Would I ever recommend our first year in married life to anyone? NEVER! But it wasn't hard like you would think. We had a few little ups and downs at first just getting used to eachother and having Katlyn but all in all it was fun. We were so poor, and we had no idea! We just didn't expect to have everything all at once and that made it all so much easier. We were so young! Today Katlyn was looking at Kylie and Andrew's blog and said, "Mom, it's still so wierd that Uncle Andrew is going to be a dad. It seems like he's still 18. I mean I know he's not but he seems so young to me still." To that I said, "Katerbug, by the time your dad was 23 he had 3 kids. Uncle Andrew is not young!" She laughed and laughed!
Every year brings new and sometimes harder challenges but we have made it through ALL of them. And through it all I know that we have always been eachother's best friend. We've had 4 kids and built 2 houses. Made it through working shift work, which I love to call shit work because it is for both spouses! Saved money and had no money. We even have fights! I know it's hard to believe! But even when we do fight, we can't be mad at eachother for more than a few hours. Sometimes I have to push him along, and sometimes he has to tell me to settle down a little and sometimes a lot but at the end of the day we lay in bed and laugh. Honestly though, he is by far the funniest, kindest, handiest and most thoughtful person I know. He's still a man so I have to clean up after him ALL the time, but I'll keep him. I think I got pretty lucky! Happy Anniversary Babe!